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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I love this post by Hollie "Jet" Black-Ramsey of Broke Creative Bride. She proves that you don't have to spend a lot of money to look like a million bucks on your wedding day.

Figuring out your wedding outfit can be tricky. On the one hand, you want to feel confident and beautiful and radiant as you celebrate this major rite of passage and reconnect with your nearest and dearest. On the other hand, it's only one day! I'm so impressed by her vision and her creative approach.

I ordered my dress from this site for $88. In the picture of the dress from the site, you can plainly see that it’s nothing to shout about. Pretty but a little too limp for my taste. Of course it’s purple in the photo and I couldn’t view the dress in any other color on the site but I imagined that it would be stunning in ivory and will do well over a full petticoat.

Dress: $88

I scoured the internet for a tea length petticoat. The only ones that I could find that were full enough for the desired effect were too costly. I went into every bridal store in town and asked if they had any… I was answered with *confused expression* ‘Tea length?’

These people had never heard of or seen a tea length petticoat.

‘You know, for a dress that comes to here’, I said pointing at mid-calf on myself.

I was still faced with even more confused looks. I racked my mind to think of who might have a shorter petticoat and could think of no one. I visited my dad’s house one day and had a brilliant idea. I found my ex-stepmother’s petticoat still in the closet where she left it. It was a very full floor-length petticoat but my dad was more than happy to get rid of it. ‘Here, take the gown too while you’re at it,’ he said. I respectfully refused his gift of a 50 lb, puff-sleeved, beaded mess. Alls I need is this here petticoat.

I cut off the waist material from the petticoat, removed the extra material that lengthens it, cut off the draw string and re-attached it to the the new shorter waist. Viola! Instant tea length petticoat!!

Petticoat: $0

The plunging neckline of the dress however was a problem. I'm a pretty busty gal and boy was I busting out of that dress. I need coverage! What am I going to do?! Once I calmed down I realized that this too was easy to fix. I went to Hobby Lobby and found some beautiful ivory lace trimming and plain ivory satin. I purchased all of this for about $2. My mother sewed the lace to the satin so that my cleavage wouldn’t show through and then she sewed all of that into the dress. Instant cleavage coverage!

Dress alteration: $2

Customizing the dress even more was a breeze. As you can see in the photo, there was a brooch on the dress under the bust line. Not my style… so I took it off. The end.

Dress customization: $0

TIP: What comes on the dress doesn’t have to stay on the dress. What’s not on the dress can always be added.

Going to the salon to get my hurr did on my wedding day was absolutely out of the question. Number one, I didn’t trust any of the stylists in my town and number two I forgot to include hair styling in the budget :ahem:. So I just explored and practiced with how to get my hair the way I wanted it several weeks before the wedding. Miraculously on my wedding day, it came out way better that I expected. I ordered my hair piece from ChantalEveleen on Etsy for $7.

Hair styling: $0

Hair piece: $7

TIP: To really save money, skip the salon and have a trusted friend do your hair or your groom’s hair.

Shoes. Oh, boy shoes. Long story short, I couldn’t find any inexpensive non-boring shoes to go with my dress. I was being pretty picky. I didn’t what blah bridal shoes and colored shoes just didn’t look right. All I wanted were closed toe ivory pumps with ankle straps. I would see them all the time but now that I needed a pair, they had all disappeared! Two weeks before the wedding, I found one pair of shoes that would make do at Shoe Depot for $29.99. I paid for them with a gift card from my bridal shower… so holla! They was freeeeee.

Shoes: $0

Make up? I wore what I already had. I’m a compulsive makeup buyer, so I didn’t have anything to worry about. However I did want some truly kiss-proof lipstick. I bought some Covergirl lipstick stuff for like $5. The stuff just doesn’t come off... that’s all I have to say. A little scary but highly recommended for your wedding day. I just wish I can remember what the heck that stuff is called.

Makeup: $5

Aaaaand jewelry. Jewelry’s just not that important to me. I love it and I love to look at it- I just don’t care to wear it so let’s keep this short and sweet:

Earrings… Wal-Mart… $2. There ya go.

Jewelry: $2

Total spent on bride:

$104

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Us

We're the kind of people who would rather be outside than in. We drink mostly water. A lot of it. We're the kind of people who put on costumes at Halloween and drive around town delivering brownies (with bows) to friends and random people in the service industry. We cook four nights a week and eat out three. We're passionate about making the world better, and we spend lots of time actually trying to do it.